Topic > Feminism in Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll - 1169

Walking into almost any store that sells toys shows quite clearly that there is a difference between toys for girls and boys. While some stores, like Target, have attempted to at least partially solve the problem by removing labels like "girl" and "boy" from their toy sections, it's been met with considerable public backlash that shows just how much further we have to go on these issues (Lucerson). Furthermore, despite such attempts to move forward, girls are still actively encouraged to maintain the housewife stereotype through toys like It's Girl Stuff! Cleaning set containing a toy dustpan, a brush, a broom and a cleaning spray manufactured and sold as recently as 2014 (a cleaning set). Even worse, sexualization and the imposition of beauty standards on women in general, and especially girls, have arguably become more rampant in recent years. Makeup, skin care, and weight loss companies have targeted girls through marketing at progressively younger ages (Cardona). Teen magazines further reinforce unrealistically high beauty standards for women with articles like one featuring Hollywood celebrities Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, and Heather Graham as “role models against which readers can calibrate their own behavior.” (Gibbons). Only